Washington — The Fertilizer Institute (TFI) on March 19 announced that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) have reached an agreement that will allow FDEP to implement numeric nutrient criteria (NNC) for Florida’s water. TFI applauded the agreement, saying that allowing the state to set its own water quality standards is a win for Florida’s environment and business community. “This agreement represents a tremendous victory for the fertilizer industry as it will allow EPA to withdraw the federal NNC for Florida, which could have cost the state’s agricultural community more than $1 billion annually,” TFI said. TFI said the agreement is precedent setting in that it confirms that states, not the federal government, are best equipped to protect their own waters. It also leaves in place an earlier U.S. District Court decision to vacate EPA’s streams standard and the downstream protective value, which TFI said are tools that could be used to set NNC elsewhere. TFI noted that environmental groups are pushing EPA to utilize similar means to address nutrients in the Mississippi River Basin. “Nutrients occur naturally and in balanced concentrations contribute to healthy ecosystems,” said TFI Vice President of Scientific Programs Bill Herz. “We are extremely pleased with this agreement and the overall efforts of a unified industry and agriculture community. We have long argued that nutrients cannot be treated like traditional pollutants and have consistently held that strict federal NNC are not the best way to regulate them in waterways.” The agreement is contingent on Florida’s Legislature acting to direct FDEP to move forward.
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